WE ARE TOO ON RIGHT TRACK!
Transit boss: On-time data prove improvement
What does $800 million buy? Subway service that just gets better and better, MTA executives say — with straight faces.
Why wouldn’t they? They’ve got data to back it up.
New performance statistics show 76% of trains ran on time in January, Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders said Sunday. That was the subways’ best on-time performance in four years.
Subway delays also hit a four-year low, the data show. But the agency admits it doesn’t count delays caused by construction and repair work — so that data probably don’t reflect riders’ actual experience.
Nonetheless, NYC Transit President Andy Byford on Sunday touted the system’s progress.
“These are sustainable improvements resulting from the Subway Action Plan,” Byford said — referring to a plan launched in the 2017 “summer of hell,” when derailments, delays and mishaps brought the system to a tipping point.
“But we’re also limited by an aging infrastructure in order to achieve the subway system that New Yorkers deserve,” Byford warned.
About $700 million of the $836 million allocated to the Subway Action Plan has been spent, Byford said. He hopes the Legislature and the MTA can find money for more fixes.
“I defy anyone to say fixing blocked drains, fixing chronically unreliable infrastructure, making trains run on time, which is what we’re here to do, isn’t a good use of money,” Byford said. “What we want to do, though, is move beyond the as-is .… We want to transform this system.” y
Transforming the system will not be easy. The MTA says its deficit could hit $500 million next year, and $1 billion by 2022. The agency is still trying to figure out how much it will spend on its next five-year capital plan, which will run from 2020 to 2024 and include money for a costly signals upgrade.
MTA Executive Director Veronique Hakim painted the agency’s financial situation as dire, and called for the passage of congestion pricing and other revenue drivers to fund the improvements.
“What we’re here to say is this team, if you give us the support and you give us the funding, we will demonstrate to be able to deliver better service,” Hakim said.
Sunday’s announcement came weeks after Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and MTA officials said they wanted to tie bus and subway fare hikes to service improvements. The MTA is to vote on a fare hike plan this week.
The improved performance statistics were released the same day as a more alarming batch of data was made public: subway ridership dropped for the third straight year in 2018, marking its largest skid in nearly 30 years.
Byford said that an increase in planned construction work contributed to fewer riders using the subway.
NYC Transit says counting construction-related delays in its performance data would “introduce the perverse objective of saying, ‘Well, in order to drive up punctuality, let’s not do anything,’ ” Byford said.
“You don’t get any gain without the pain,” he said. “This isn’t a numbers game for me. This is about improving peoples’ realities.”